Nacional Reveals the Head Mafia Boss of the Balkans

Stanko Subotic Cane, Croatian citizen and head of the entire Balkan mafia, has worked together with Djindjic and Djukanovic, as well as with the late Vjeko Slisko

   In a recent interview with the Croatian Internal Affairs Minister, Sime Lucin, he confirmed for Nacional that Stanko Subotic Cane, one of the largest Serbian mafia bosses and the tobacco smuggling partner of Montenegrin President Mile Djukanovic, became a Croatian citizen in 1999. According to Lucin’s claims, this Serbian mobster with a Croatian passport is estimated to be one of the richest people in this entire region, worth some $500 million. He allegedly received his Croatian documents on the recommendation of General Ljubo Cesic Rojs, former commander of the 66th HVO Brigade. He received these documents based on an article in the law stating that foreigners who are particularly supportive of Croatian national interests can qualify for citizenship.
   This discovery is so scandalous to even the benevolent representatives of the governing coalition, that the Internal Affairs Ministry (MUP) has begun an official internal investigation into secret protection Subotic receive from the former HDZ government, enabling him to receive Croatian citizenship and residence in Zagreb. According to the information Nacional has, the following has been confirmed: that Stanko Subotic Cane received Croatian citizenship on June 15, 1999, and that the signature on the approval form was that of former MUP minister Ivan Penic. That same day, Penic signed another document which granted Subotic’s wife Jagoda and ten year old daughter Mija citizenship as well.
   The identity cards and passport for the three family members were already completed by the following day, June 16, 1999 in the Zagreb police headquarters. However the Subotic family did not personally pick up their documents. According to instructions received from the top ranks of MUP, the papers were to be mailed in a package to Subotic’s address in Geneva, Switzerland.
   That request was denied the same day, and the documents were then allegedly taken by Miljenko Bukovac, who was at that time assistant to the minister, and today is retired. Following this, there is no longer any trace of the documents. Only one more detail is known: that the Serbian mafioso was granted Croatian documents at exactly the time his Yugoslav passport ran out, and when an international warrant for his arrest was issued in Belgrade, due to his suspected involvement in a number of murders and showdowns with opposing smuggling networks. From this it is not difficult to conclude that General Ljubo Cesic Rojs and the last HDZ police minister provided the Serbian “tobacco emperor” with a form of political asylum.

Smuggling Channels

   The identities of his powerful sponsors and protectors in Croatia, hiding behind Cesic and Penic, are still unknown. However, educated by the many years experience of HDZ’s generous handing out of Croatian citizenship all over the world, it is not difficult for us to conclude that Subotic could have come to his citizenship in two ways. He could either have bribed some high ranking HDZ politician, or via indirect channels and secret partner agreements with joint criminal organizations operating both in Croatia, and in BiH. As far as is known, Subotic’s smuggling channels stretch out over the entire Balkan region, thanks to the secret support or protection of the highest ranking politicians and police authorities in virtually all of the republics of the former Yugoslavia. In Serbia, that role until recently belonged to Jovica Stanisic, head of the Serbian State Security Agency, and Milorad Vucelic, former president of the governing SPS and former director of Serbian National Television. Today, that role belongs to Serbian Premier, Zoran Djindjic. On the front page of a recent edition of the Belgrade newspaper ‘Politika’, a photograph was published of the private airplane, which belongs to Subotic, in which Djindjic officially traveled to Moscow. Today, Subotic brags about having complete protection from Djindjic.
   Finally, Subotic is also the business partner of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, who is directly involved in distributing profits derived from cigarette smuggling. With the assistance of the Montenegrin company ‘Mia’, fictitiously owned by Djukanovic’s mates from schooldays, Dusko Bana and Zeljko Mihajlovic, and his off shore companies on Cypress, ‘Dulwich’ and ‘Fremarketing’, Subotic is one of the main cigarette suppliers for the Yugoslav black market. He obtains cigarettes from factories from all corners of the globe, including the cigarette factory in Capljina, BiH and from the Croatian Tobacco Factory Rovinj (TDR).
   Milo Djukanovic is also responsible for seeing to the permeability of the Montenegrin borders in both directions – for the illegal import of goods which can be sold in Montenegro and Serbia, and for the secret export of earned money, which then goes into secret accounts on Cypress and in Switzerland. Massive amounts of foreign currency are transported from Yugoslavia by private planes, but in packages marked diplomatic contents.
   The annual earnings from the sale of cigarettes in Serbia alone, as confirmed by the investigations of agencies from various western countries, are estimated to be some 2 billion DEM. A good portion of this ends up as “laundered” profits in the secret bank accounts of Milo Djukanovic and Stanko Subotic. According to some estimates, these two men together have earned and distributed over a billion dollars in the last five years.

Mafia Organizations

European and American politicians have known for some time that Milo Djukanovic uses his presidential authorities, first and foremost, to cover up the state mafia organizations which are served by the customs, police and justice systems. In 1999, the American government was already interested in the financial sources of the country and business arrangements with Stanko Subotic Cane. That was when an order arrived from the small, impoverished country of Montenegro to the company ‘Textron’ for a luxurious Cessna Citation X, the first plane produced of that airplane model. The price - $17.5 million. While the European wealthy pay for that kind of an airplane with long-term loans, Subotic paid for it all at once.
Since that time, another identical order has come from Montenegro, with the identical form of payment. One of two Cessna Citation X airplanes in Subotic’s fleet, is now used to transport President Djukanovic. Six professional pilots work for the Serbian mafioso, among them, the son of the former director of Partizan, Zarko Zecevic, and the son of the former head of the Serbian Security Agency, Jovica Stanisic. One of Subotic’s pilots, Ivan Babic, escaped to the United States and told the FBI everything.

Precious Airplanes

Subotic’s airplane is registered as N999 CX (serial number 0073), and Djukanovic’s N888 CN (serial number 0086). Djukanovic received his airplane on Subotic’s birthday, September 9, 1999. The Montenegrin government also bought a third plane, a Lear jet, registration number N888 CX (serial number 0044), which was bought in March 2000 for $9.6 million. All three planes are registered to companies out of Delaware, and Subotic stands behind those companies.
One of the companies is Brook Aviation, the second Fort Aviation, and the third, to which the Lear jet is registered, is called Willow Aviation Inc. Thus, it is silly in comparison to note that the state airline, Montenegro Airlines, has one old Fokker F28 airplane in its fleet, which is worth $3 million, and that the president and his company travel around in two planes worth $30 million, and, best of all, those planes are registered to a Serbian mobster.

Political Frauds

In spite of the fact that these financial transactions were being carefully traced, Djukanovic and Subotic used typical western wile in their battles with Slobodan Milosevic, for they felt that Milosevic was the greatest problem in crime in the Balkans. Declaring himself as a separatist, attempting to split Montenegro off from Yugoslavia, Djukanovic easily packaged the interests of his own criminal organization into a political option which the international community then used to apply pressure to the Yugoslav dictator and war criminal. Since Milosevic has been living in a jail cell and has lost his charisma as the great Serbian leader, the European police are beginning to show increased interest in the sources of income for both Djukanovic and Subotic. The mafia-president twosome are also suspected for their roles in smuggling, and in a series of ordered murders. Obviously, they are becoming a nuisance for the fundamental decriminalization of the countries of the former Yugoslavia, which is the first and most important condition necessary to achieve lasting peace in this part of Europe.
Therefore, the discovery of Subotic’s Croatian citizenship is a very significant detail in the reconstruction of the ultimate territorial reach of their criminal and political connections. It is thus no surprise that MUP’s internal investigation into Subotic is the first step in the thorough revision of all 6000 Croatian citizenships given out in the last ten years. Many were handed out without any of the usual legal regulations, at the discretion of the HDZ Internal Affairs Minister and at the request of various HDZ greats.

The Role of Ljubo Cesic Rojs

Of course, Ljubo Cesic Rojs’s recommendation to grant Subotic citizenship was not found in the MUP archives. As a guarantee to the Serbian mafia boss, Cesic was mentioned only in one inconsequent police notebook, while all of the remaining documents related to the citizenship procedure happened to vanish without a trace. It is assumed, however, that Ljubo Cesic Rojs did not give that recommendation on his own initiative. As far as is known, the former commander of the 66th Brigade, along with all of his embezzlements of state money, was never personally involved in any significant smuggling of cigarettes. Therefore, he likely does not have any business partners among the protagonists of the smuggling underground which are close enough to him for him to provide them protection in the way of a Croatian passport. Instead, it would appear that Cesic Rojs wrote that recommendation as a favor to one of his likeminded political colleagues, or to someone from BiH who could have great use from Subotic in return.
Even though the Croatian police at this time have no information as to who could help in identifying those hiding behind Cesic’s name, it is interesting that while investigating Djukanovic and Subotic, Nacional’s journalists happened across several direct connections between the mafia and individuals in Croatia’s public life.

Girls from Croatia

   The most direct connection is 34-year old model, Dijana Visnjic, also known as Didi, who is a common guest in Subotic’s villa on the island of St. Stephan. Visnjic, together with her friend Branka Maric, flew out of Zagreb airport on May 4th of this year, in Subotic’s plane. She spent six days in Montenegro as Subotic’s guest, and returned to Zagreb in the same plane. When she is not modeling or entertaining Subotic, Dijana Visnjic works in the law offices of Silvijo Hrast who is otherwise the attorney for the late Vjeko Slisko, who was recently liquidated in Zagreb’s Flower Square in a mob showdown. As well informed sources claim, Dijana Visnjic was a long time friend of Slisko’s, and it was in fact on her recommendation that Silvijo Hrast became the most significant legal representation for the murdered “King of the Poker Machines”.
   Her visit to St. Stephan island was organized by a wealthy Romanian from Zagreb who has worked together with Slisko for a time on certain projects in Prague. That same man got into contact with Djej Ramadanovski, the Serbian folk singer, who was paid to entertain Djukanovic and Subotic at private parties for his business partners in Subotic’s massive villa on the island of St. Stephan. According to the accounts of witnesses, Subotic’s house is made up of several floors joined by elevators, and there is a massive underground garage housing some 25 vehicles.
   Up until last year, Djukanovic and Subotic invited entertainers primarily from Belgrade and Novi Sad, from the orders of suspicious Yugoslav models and actresses. However, when that chain broke, they created their own private air bridge to Croatia.

Beaten Underaged Girls

On one occasion, Ramadanovski brought an underaged girl to the house on St. Stephan, and after collective orgies and drug abuse, the girl was virtually beaten to death and ended up in hospital in Podgorica. As soon as she became well enough, the shocked girl gave an interview to the Novi Sad newspaper Svet, in which she described the company which Djukanovic and Subotic kept in the St. Stephan villa. Terrified by her story, other Serbian “models” and “actresses” quickly lost interest in such parties. Thus, Djej Ramadanovski had to quickly find new attractions for the mafia parties someplace else.
In short, besides the Croatian model Dijana Visnjic, three Croatian singing stars were guests in Subotic’s weekend home last year: Alka Vuica, Nives Celzijus and Doris Dragovic. As the Croatian media reported, these gigs were worth enormous amounts of money, from 20,000 DEM to 100,000 DEM. Nives Celzijus is also a frequent “guest” at Subotic’s house in the modern Spanish resort Marbella. In 1999, Milo Djukanovic and his family were also guests in that house.

Serb from Ub

   Even though these fragments of the Croatian and Montenegrin social and business connections do not explain who provided Stanko Subotic Cane with protection and a Croatian passport and why, there is perhaps within the significant signposts towards where Subotic’s protectors could be found. This individual is certainly a protector of both Subotic and the late Vjeko Slisko, and belongs to the Croatian intelligence-security underground.
   Stanko Subotic Cane was born on September 9, 1959 in the Serbian village of Kalinovac, in the district of Ub. At the time that the Socialist Federalist Republic of Yugoslavia broke down, he was a tailor in the Belgrade boutique owned by a certain Vanja Bokan, who in addition to making knock off copies of world renown fashion designers, was in the business of smuggling cigarettes. Like all other Balkan mafia bosses, Subotic began to win over leading positions in the Serbian black market during the period of the Croatian-Serbian war and international sanctions on Yugoslavia. Bokan himself was to become Subotic’s victim. He was murdered in Athens in October of last year, but left behind a message that in the case of his untimely death, then Subotic and Djukanovic were the ones responsible. Since that time, the Greek police have been searching for Stanko Subotic and Pajo Sekulic, Subotic’s logistician from Podgorica.
   From 1996 to date, Subotic used part of the profits earned in his smuggling endeavors to finance the election campaign and the shady dealings of the Montenegrin Democratic Socialist Party. In the beginning, that party was under the leadership of Momir Bulatovic, and seemed to just be another branch of the Belgrade SPS, Slobodan Milosevic’s party. Furthermore, Milo Djukanovic, at that time Bulatovic’s closest colleague, was still in support of tight Serb-Montenegrin unity. >From the same time comes Subotic’s criminal partnerships with Jovica Stanisic, the head of Milosevic’s secret police which dealt primarily with the physical elimination of any political opponents and business competition. However, this is also the time of Subotic’s and Djukanovic’s partnership with Milorad Vucelic, who was once Milosevic’s top manipulator and media fraud.
   The conflict between Djukanovic and Bulatovic occurred at the same time as the Belgrade factions among Milosevic’s followers and relatives on how to divvy up the loot, not unlike the factions of HDZ. In the example of the Yugoslav political greats, their fairytale assets grew primarily from the war looting of Croatia and BiH, and less from the national treasures of their own great country. In Montenegro, their arguments were publicly articulated through the traditional rhetoric of the “whites”, the supporter of a unified Serbian-Montenegrin nation, and the “greens”, the Montenegrin separatists. As opposed to Bulatovic, Djukanovic suddenly was transformed into a Montenegrin “statebuilder”, thus receiving the ideal cover for his branching independent smuggling network outside of Belgrade. The Belgrade underground was already under the tight thumb of the much stronger Milosevic family.
   As a member of the “greens”, Djukanovic received further resources to cover up and defend his private smuggling monopoly in Montenegro. Any mention to his private interests was interpreted as a pro-Serbian attack on Montenegrin independence. His “greenness” was awarded also by the western allies, who used him as a powerful weapon in the fight against Slobodan Milosevic. Thus, the sanctions against Djukanovic’s country were never implemented in such a harsh format as they were in Serbia.

Smuggling Nation

The effect soon became very interesting: exactly by the measures of the “tobacco emperor” and the Montenegrin president, that portion of the Yugoslav border was transformed into an unofficial tax-free zone for all forms of goods smuggling from all neighbouring countries. Of course, the most powerful among them, protected by state institutions, took over the most profitable businesses. In Yugoslavia, that happens to be cigarettes.
With this political turnaround, Milo Djukanovic found that his Belgrade protectors, with Milorad Vucelic at the head, were no longer necessary for him, and he simply cut off all business ties with them. As a warning, a round of gunfire was shot into Vucelic’s car in Budva, while his remaining competition did not get off so easily. For example, Goran Zugic, advisor for national security in Djukanovic’s cabinet, was a very awkward witness to the company kept by Djukanovic and Subotic at the St. Stephan villa and knew everything about the secret accounts on Cypress, where he personally took and deposited their money. It is known from reliable sources that prior to his death, Zugic handed over evidence concerning Djukanovic’s and Subotic’s business dealings with a certain western intelligence agency. Zugic was killed by Darko Raspopovic Beli, head of the anti-terrorist sector of the Montenegrin intelligence agency. However, Raspopovic himself was liquidated in January of this year in the center of Podgorica, in front of many terrified passers-by. The killer remains unknown. As one Serbian-Montenegrin mafia member liked to state as he informed his partner Milo Djukanovic about the job well done, the murderer “was swept away by the wind”.

Series of Organized Murders

   Well-informed members of the Belgrade underground, who have had to escape from Yugoslavia due to Subotic’s squadron of death, were particularly disturbed by the murder of Radovan Stojicic Badze, former deputy police minister for Serbia and commander of the special Serbian police forces in BiH and Slavonia. Because of that murder, which took place on April 10, 1997, Milosevic’s police issued an arrest warrant for Subotic. However, considering that Serbia at that time was not a member of Interpol, Subotic continued to walk freely in the west. That warrant was in fact the primary reason why Subotic paid for and obtained a Croatian passport. That arrest warrant was cancelled when Djindjic came to office, and all of the documentation has cleverly been hidden. In January 2000, Subotic allegedly shot and killed the greatest mafia boss in Vojvodina, Branislav Lainovic from Novi Sad, and is also responsible for the murder of Jusuf Jusu Bulic, owner of the night club ‘Zeleznik’ in 1998. However, it would appear that he “crossed the line” with the murders of Milan Djordjevic, nickname Bonbon, who was Arkan’s godfather and successor, and of Milan Rajovic Milancet. Rajovic, in fact, left behind written evidence to the secret service he worked for, that he had been tailed for at least two days by two men in an Audi A6, men that he had never seen before, and by Bajo Sekulic, Subotic’s right hand for business in Montenegro.
   The Croatian police have managed to obtain the information that the main executor in Subotic’s clan was a man named Milan Milovanovic Mrgud from Vinkovac, who is currently wanted in Croatia on counts of war crimes. Harsh evidence against him came from Subotic’s former partner, Srecko Kestner, who gave a statement to the Austrian police. According to Kestner’s testimony, Milovanovic was receiving a monthly salary of $50,000 to eliminate Subotic’s opponents. Kestner also received Croatian documents on the same day as Subotic.
   Left for a moment without a country to call home, Subotic’s mafia organization obviously was disguised with Croatian papers, perhaps even hiding behind Croatian companies and Croatian “brother” gangs. Thus, there is no doubt that the Serbian “tobacco emperor”, who also has full status as a Croatian citizen, is not only sponsor of the Zagreb jet-set, but also an actor on the domestic crime scene.

[CTRL] Mafia Boss of the Balkans

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